Roman Polak out for season with lower body injury

A staple of the Leafs blueline will have to watch the remainder of the postseason from the sideline.

Suffering a lower-body injury in a game the Leafs won 4-3 in 20T after what felt like four days (really it was about four and a half hours), Roman Polak collapsed awkwardly and with it, saw his season come to a quick end.

It’s unsure exactly what Polak was injured with, but it looked like he hit one knee hard and messed up his other foot in the fall after colliding with Brooks Orpik. As you can tell in the above picture, a little bit of pain was had. Here’s a video, if you care to watch, though I’ll warn you it’s a little disturbing up close.

(Also, no promises on the accuracy of the title.)

Polak was a stable if not spectacular member of the Leafs blueline this season. He played in 75 of 82 regular season games, picking up 11 points.

Alexey Marchenko comes in as the most likely replacement for #46, though it’s possible a Toronto Marlies defenceman (Travis Dermott? Andrew Nielsen?) to be called up as an insurance option as well.

I’m not saying I miss Frank Corrado right now, but he might just be missing the Leafs a little bit.

Tough break for the Buds and Polak. He’s the one guy we can count on the move people in front of the net. Hopefully, Zaitsev is back but if not, the back end has to play big and start knocking some bodies around.